Place Your Bets: Championship Week

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If you live in Nevada, Oregon, Montana or Delaware, you're in luck. Otherwise, go to Canada or Europe, or those rogues in New Jersey and get your bet on for the NFL weekend! Both games are Sunday.

1. New England at Denver (-5.5) — In what could possibly be the final Peyton Manning vs. Tom Brady playoff matchup, which always produces gold, the Broncos look to be far and away the best team on paper. But that's not the case, at all. The Patriots have flown under the radar all year, it seems, and went 12-4 while transforming themselves into a power running team behind LeGarrette Blount, who had a huge game last week against the Colts. But there's a few things going against the Patriots this week. Denver also loves to run the ball, despite what you might think. New England's run defense ranked 28th in the NFL, while Denver's ranked 5th. Also, the fact this game is in Denver is huge. The Patriots lost all four of their games this year on the road, including two to some awful teams in Buffalo and the Jets. This game, obviously, could go either way with those two guys under center, but give me Denver.

2. San Francisco (+3.5) at Seattle — As exciting as Manning vs. Brady is, this game is even more appealing, personally. Two teams that absolutely despise each other, right down to the head coaches, lots of trash talk between guys like Michael Crabtree and Richard Sherman, and two bone-crushing defenses. The Seahawks demolished the 49ers earlier this season in Seattle, where the Seahawks rarely lose football games due to their very real homefield advantage and deafening crowd. But that 49ers team didn't have Crabtree and had a concussed Vernon Wells. The 3.5-point line is an absolute gift. It's easy to see Seattle winning this game by a field goal, which would still give you a win with the Niners. It's also easy to see the 49ers winning straight up, as they've been playing better football, especially offensively, than Seattle recently.